German Intelligence Concludes Sarin Gas Used on Assad’s Orders In a tapped conference call between a high level Hezbollah official and Iran’s embassy, the former allegedly said that Assad “had snapped” and that he “had made a big mistake in going through ordering the use of poison gas.” (Interestingly, this is being reported by Russia TV).

Lebanon: Berri Proposes Roadmap to Escape for Escaping “Quagmire” Nasser Charara on the Lebanese Parliament Speaker’s initiative “to discuss the form and manifesto of the new government; to allow the army to recruit 5,000 soldiers to protect the Bekaa, Tripoli, and the northern borders against militants and armed chaos; and to end the overlap between Lebanon and the situation in Syria, and re-focus dialogue on the electoral law and the national defense strategy.”

Obama’s BombsAs’ad AbuKhalil says that “people in Syria should not be killed – not by conventional weapons and not by chemical weapons. But the US has a brilliant idea: It wants to drop more (presumably conventional) bombs on Syria in the name of ending (presumably only) chemical bombs in Syria.”

The Administration’s Proposed Syria AUMF is Very Broad Jack Goldsmith, a former legal adviser to the Bush administration, notes that the proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) “authorizes the President to use any element of the U.S. Armed Forces and any method of force. It does not contain specific limits on targets – either in terms of the identity of the targets (e.g. the Syrian government, Syrian rebels, Hezbollah, Iran) or the geography of the targets.”

Syria Statement The International Crisis Group says “quite apart from talk of outrage, deterrence and restoring U.S. credibility, the priority must be the welfare of the Syrian people. Whether or not military strikes are ordered, this only can be achieved through imposition of a sustained ceasefire and widely accepted political transition.”

Talking to Mr Assad Brian Whitaker is disappointed with the International Crisis Group statement, arguing there is no political settlement possible without the removal of Assad.

Resources

What to Read on Syria A collection of blogs, media outlets and think tanks suggestions by The Economist’sPomegranate blog.